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American Morning

Second Chances

Aired January 03, 2003 - 09:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Have you ever thought about reversing the course of your life to become someone new, someone totally different? Well, our next guest this morning has not only thought about it, he's actually done it. You know what else he did? He wrote a book to show you how to do it. It's called "Second Acts," creating the life you really want, building the career you truly desire, and the author is Stephen Poland, who joins us here in our New York studios.
STEPHEN POLLAN, AUTHOR, "SECOND ACTS": Good to see you. Happy New Year. Thank you so much, and the very same to you and to your audience.

HARRIS: Now, obviously, this second act has worked out pretty well for you, because you came in here with a pretty broad smile our face.

POLLAN: That's a masterpiece of understatement. The second act for me worked out beautifully. And you want to know something, I'm seriously considering another second act or maybe a third act.

HARRIS: It would be a third act, wouldn't it?

POLLAN: When you do your second act, your world is opened up, and you see things in a whole different way, you see things you never saw before, you see opportunities, you take some risks. You put irons in the fire. You develop sort of a courage, because you appreciate life. It gets to a point where the last thing in the world you want to do is die.

HARRIS: Yes. I was going to say, that's the kind of thing you hear people say when they've had one of these near-death experiences.

POLLAN: But the good news is you can have a second act, optionally, without having one, when you're fed up with being fed up and when you can't stand what you do anymore, when you feel there is no quality in your life, you can also have a second act, and that's why I wrote the book.

HARRIS: What would be the first step you'd recommend for someone who might consider something like that?

POLLAN: I define the second act as a reinvention of your life, and we reinvent your life by taking your deepest most heartfelt dream, the most important dream that you have, we have to dig it up sometimes, and we make it come to existence. That is how we...

HARRIS: But you have to know what the dream is, and a lot of people may not know what their dream is.

POLLAN: A lot of people know what their dreams are; they have just never done it, and a lot of people do not know. So the book tells you in the beginning how to figure out that dream.

And then the book has exercises, and we go through how realistic the dream is, is it an achievable dream? Can a 5'7" guy play on the Knicks, and the changes are no. But the size of the dream, the -- what the dream is looking for is not as important as the practicality of dream.

HARRIS: What is -- give us an example of an exercise then.

POLLAN: An example of an exercise is your passions. I mean, what are your passions? How do you satisfy your passions? Will the dream that you're contemplating satisfy your passions? It's really a self-analysis kind of thing.

HARRIS: Joseph Campbell always taught to follow your bliss. That's the sort of thing he always said.

POLLAN: And you know, the dream can be new career, the dream could be birthing, the dream could be starting a business, the dream could be a relocation -- whatever is the most important thing for you in your life.

HARRIS: How did you come to this realization? And what was your second act? What happened with you?

POLLAN: OK, I came to the realization, not optionally. I did not intend to have a second act. Instead, When I was age 48, I was declared to have cancer. Prior to that, I was a businessman, president of a company, etc., etc., you know.

HARRIS: Very successful.

POLLAN: And then I'm told that I have lung cancer, and my wife and I, I was in the hospital, we were talking about me taking my final exams and how would things be. I had four kids in private school, we had an apartment on Park Avenue. And I was telling Corky, my wife, it looks like we will have to sell that. And she said, no, when this is over, we won't be able to buy it again. My first glimmer of hope. Two days later, the doctor called again and said you don't have cancer, you have tuberculosis -- best news I ever had in my life. It just changed me.

HARRIS: Yes.

POLLAN: It was as if I got a message from God.

HARRIS: If you would look right now in the newspapers, who would you pick as a perfect example of a person who has capitalized on this philosophy of a second act?

POLLAN: Jimmy Carter, not only because he just got the Nobel Peace Prize; this is a man who's had several second several acts. HARRIS: That's true, yes.

POLLAN: George Foreman, a lot have had second acts. But I work with people on those second acts.

Let me tell you the story of the prominent minister.

HARRIS: Quickly, if you can.

POLLAN: OK, I will. A prominent minister from a major church in New York, fed up -- he had a terrific congregation, fed up with his job -- he's 55 years old. What is he doing now? He's become an auctioneer at a prominent gallery, and guess who's buying his stuff, the congregation, but that was his second act. And he is happy, and it makes no difference to them. He has a life of bliss now. Anybody can do it.

HARRIS: That's a great idea. Makes sense. Stephen Pollan, thank you very much for coming in and explaining to us second acts. I'll think about this and read this one through. I will talk to my friend Daryn about this as well. We have a long flight back to Atlanta, we have plenty to talk about now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 3, 2003 - 09:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Have you ever thought about reversing the course of your life to become someone new, someone totally different? Well, our next guest this morning has not only thought about it, he's actually done it. You know what else he did? He wrote a book to show you how to do it. It's called "Second Acts," creating the life you really want, building the career you truly desire, and the author is Stephen Poland, who joins us here in our New York studios.
STEPHEN POLLAN, AUTHOR, "SECOND ACTS": Good to see you. Happy New Year. Thank you so much, and the very same to you and to your audience.

HARRIS: Now, obviously, this second act has worked out pretty well for you, because you came in here with a pretty broad smile our face.

POLLAN: That's a masterpiece of understatement. The second act for me worked out beautifully. And you want to know something, I'm seriously considering another second act or maybe a third act.

HARRIS: It would be a third act, wouldn't it?

POLLAN: When you do your second act, your world is opened up, and you see things in a whole different way, you see things you never saw before, you see opportunities, you take some risks. You put irons in the fire. You develop sort of a courage, because you appreciate life. It gets to a point where the last thing in the world you want to do is die.

HARRIS: Yes. I was going to say, that's the kind of thing you hear people say when they've had one of these near-death experiences.

POLLAN: But the good news is you can have a second act, optionally, without having one, when you're fed up with being fed up and when you can't stand what you do anymore, when you feel there is no quality in your life, you can also have a second act, and that's why I wrote the book.

HARRIS: What would be the first step you'd recommend for someone who might consider something like that?

POLLAN: I define the second act as a reinvention of your life, and we reinvent your life by taking your deepest most heartfelt dream, the most important dream that you have, we have to dig it up sometimes, and we make it come to existence. That is how we...

HARRIS: But you have to know what the dream is, and a lot of people may not know what their dream is.

POLLAN: A lot of people know what their dreams are; they have just never done it, and a lot of people do not know. So the book tells you in the beginning how to figure out that dream.

And then the book has exercises, and we go through how realistic the dream is, is it an achievable dream? Can a 5'7" guy play on the Knicks, and the changes are no. But the size of the dream, the -- what the dream is looking for is not as important as the practicality of dream.

HARRIS: What is -- give us an example of an exercise then.

POLLAN: An example of an exercise is your passions. I mean, what are your passions? How do you satisfy your passions? Will the dream that you're contemplating satisfy your passions? It's really a self-analysis kind of thing.

HARRIS: Joseph Campbell always taught to follow your bliss. That's the sort of thing he always said.

POLLAN: And you know, the dream can be new career, the dream could be birthing, the dream could be starting a business, the dream could be a relocation -- whatever is the most important thing for you in your life.

HARRIS: How did you come to this realization? And what was your second act? What happened with you?

POLLAN: OK, I came to the realization, not optionally. I did not intend to have a second act. Instead, When I was age 48, I was declared to have cancer. Prior to that, I was a businessman, president of a company, etc., etc., you know.

HARRIS: Very successful.

POLLAN: And then I'm told that I have lung cancer, and my wife and I, I was in the hospital, we were talking about me taking my final exams and how would things be. I had four kids in private school, we had an apartment on Park Avenue. And I was telling Corky, my wife, it looks like we will have to sell that. And she said, no, when this is over, we won't be able to buy it again. My first glimmer of hope. Two days later, the doctor called again and said you don't have cancer, you have tuberculosis -- best news I ever had in my life. It just changed me.

HARRIS: Yes.

POLLAN: It was as if I got a message from God.

HARRIS: If you would look right now in the newspapers, who would you pick as a perfect example of a person who has capitalized on this philosophy of a second act?

POLLAN: Jimmy Carter, not only because he just got the Nobel Peace Prize; this is a man who's had several second several acts. HARRIS: That's true, yes.

POLLAN: George Foreman, a lot have had second acts. But I work with people on those second acts.

Let me tell you the story of the prominent minister.

HARRIS: Quickly, if you can.

POLLAN: OK, I will. A prominent minister from a major church in New York, fed up -- he had a terrific congregation, fed up with his job -- he's 55 years old. What is he doing now? He's become an auctioneer at a prominent gallery, and guess who's buying his stuff, the congregation, but that was his second act. And he is happy, and it makes no difference to them. He has a life of bliss now. Anybody can do it.

HARRIS: That's a great idea. Makes sense. Stephen Pollan, thank you very much for coming in and explaining to us second acts. I'll think about this and read this one through. I will talk to my friend Daryn about this as well. We have a long flight back to Atlanta, we have plenty to talk about now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com